Structured light projector

ABSTRACT

An optical sensing device adopted to use structured light to detect an object is provided. The optical sensing device includes a structured light projector and a sensor. The structured light projector includes a light source and at least one beam multiplication film. The light source is configured to emit a light beam. The at least one beam multiplication film is disposed on a transmission path of the light beam and is made of anisotropic refractive index material, wherein a plurality of separated light beams are produced after the light beam from the light source passes through the at least one beam multiplication film, so as to form the structured light. The sensor is configured to sense the structured light reflected from the object. Besides, a structured light projector is also provided.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a divisional application of and claims the prioritybenefit of a prior U.S. application Ser. No. 15/970,856, filed on May 3,2018, now allowed, which claims the priority benefit of U.S. provisionalapplication Ser. No. 62/590,662, filed on Nov. 27, 2017. The entirety ofthe above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated byreference herein and made a part of this specification.

BACKGROUND Technical Field

The invention generally relates a sensing device and a light projector,and, in particular, to an optical sensing device and a structured lightprojector.

Description of Related Art

A structured light three-dimensional (3D) sensing device measuressurface contours of an object by projecting light patterns on the objectand sensing the deformation of the patterns on the object. Theadvantages of the structured light 3D sensing device are speed andprecision since the structured light 3D sensing device senses multiplepoints at once instead of sensing one point at a time.

In order to generate the light patterns, a diffractive optical elementmay be used with monochromatic light, such as a laser beam, to dividethe laser beam into a number of light beams, so as to form structurelight. However, the light intensities among those light beams are notsimilar. In addition, while the configuration between the diffractiveoptical element and the laser light source is not appropriate, theintensity of the light corresponding to direct transmission (i.e. zeroorder) may be too strong, which causes a problem of safety.

SUMMARY

The invention provides an optical sensing device and a structured lightprojector which use a simple and effective way to multiply a light beamso as to form structured light.

According to an embodiment of the invention, an optical sensing deviceadopted to use structured light to detect an object is provided. Theoptical sensing device includes a structured light projector and asensor. The structured light projector includes a light source and atleast one beam multiplication film. The light source is configured toemit a light beam. At least one beam multiplication film is disposed ona transmission path of the light beam and is made of anisotropicrefractive index material, wherein a plurality of separated light beamsare produced after the light beam from the light source passes throughthe at least one beam multiplication film, so as to form the structuredlight. The sensor is configured to sense the structured light reflectedfrom the object.

According to an embodiment of the invention, a structured lightprojector including a light source, at least two beam multiplicationfilms and a wave plate is provided. The light source is configured toemit a light beam. At least two beam multiplication films are disposedon a transmission path of the light beam and are made of anisotropicrefractive index material, wherein a plurality of separated light beamsare produced after the light beam from the light source passes throughany one of the at least two beam multiplication films, so as to formstructured light. The wave plate is disposed between adjacent two of theat least two beam multiplication films, wherein a polarization state ofthe light beam is changed from linear polarization to circularpolarization or elliptical polarization after the light beam passesthrough the wave plate.

According to an embodiment of the invention, a structured lightprojector including a light source and at least two beam multiplicationfilms is provided. The light source is configured to emit a light beam.The at least two beam multiplication films are disposed on atransmission path of the light beam, wherein a plurality of separatedlight beams are produced after the light beam from the light sourcepasses through any one of the at least two beam multiplication films, soas to form structured light, and optical axes of the at least two beammultiplication films are inclined relative to a transmission directionof the light beam emitted from the light source.

Based on the above, the structured light projector provided by one ofthe embodiments of the invention includes at least one beammultiplication film made of anisotropic refractive index material. Sincethe light beam from the light source is split by the at least one beammultiplication film into multiple light beams corresponding to aplurality of polarization directions, so that the structured lightprojector of the embodiment of the invention is capable of effectivelyproducing structured light by using a simple structure. Besides, thestructured light projector provided by one of the embodiments of theinvention uses the aforementioned structured light projector, andtherefore is capable of producing structured light by using a simple andeffective way.

To make the aforementioned more comprehensible, several embodimentsaccompanied with drawings are described in detail as follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitutea part of this specification. The drawings illustrate exemplaryembodiments of the disclosure and, together with the description, serveto explain the principles of the disclosure.

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an optical sensing deviceaccording to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a structured lightprojector of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the light propagation in abeam multiplication film.

FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B are schematic views of light patterns generated bystructured light projectors according to some embodiments of theinvention.

FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B are schematic cross-sectional views of a structuredlight projector in different viewpoints according to an embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a structured lightprojector according to an embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferredembodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers areused in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or likeparts.

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an optical sensing deviceaccording to an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 2 is a schematiccross-sectional view of a structured light projector of FIG. 1. First,referring to FIG. 1, an optical sensing device 10 of the presentembodiment is adopted to use structured light SL to detect an object 12.The optical sensing device 10 includes a structured light projector 100and a sensor 14. The structured light projector 100 is configured toproduce the structured light SL. The sensor 14 is configured to sensethe structured light SL reflected from the object 12. In addition, theoptical sensing device 10 may further include a lens 16 disposed infront of the sensor 14.

In the present embodiment, the object 12 is, for example, a human face,a hand or an object having 3D surface contours. When the structuredlight SL is projected on the object 12, the light pattern of thestructured light SL may deform due to the concave-convex surface of theobject 12. The sensor 14 senses the deformation of the light pattern onthe object 12 so as to calculate the depths of the surface of the object12, i.e. distances from a camera of the sensors 14.

Then, referring to FIG. 2, the structured light projector 100 includes alight source 110 and at least one beam multiplication film 120 (forexample, FIG. 2 illustrates one beam multiplication film 120). The lightsource 110 is configured to emit a light beam L. The beam multiplicationfilm 120 is disposed on a transmission path of the light beam L and ismade of an anisotropic refractive index material, wherein a plurality ofseparated light beams (for example, as illustrated in FIG. 3) areproduced after the light beam L from the light source 110 passes throughthe beam multiplication film 120, so as to form the structured light SL.In the present embodiment, the beam multiplication film 120 may be aflexible film fabricated by, for example, roll-to-roll process similarto the compensation film of the liquid crystal display. In the presentembodiment, the beam multiplication film 120 may be a uniaxialretardation film, a biaxial retardation film, or an oblique axialretardation film, but is not limited thereto. Besides, an optical axisA1 of the beam multiplication film 120 is inclined relative to atransmission direction TD (for example, left-right direction of FIG. 2)of the light beam L emitted from the light source 110 by an angle θ1.That is, the optical axis A1 is not parallel or perpendicular to thetransmission direction TD. For example, the angle θ1 may be larger than0 degree and less than 90 degrees, or may be larger than 90 degrees andless than 180 degrees.

The optical mechanism of the beam multiplication film 120 will beintroduced below. FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of thelight propagation in a beam multiplication film. Referring to FIG. 3,when an unpolarized light beam L is incident upon a beam multiplicationfilm 120 a, for example, a uniaxial retardation film, the light beam Lis split into an ordinary beam L1 and an extraordinary beam L2 takingdifferent paths. The ordinary beam L1 has a polarization direction PD1perpendicular to a reference plane (e.g. parallel to the YZ plane) inwhich the inclined angle θ of the optical axis A of the beammultiplication film 120 a exists, and the extraordinary beam L2 has apolarization direction PD2 perpendicular to the polarization directionPD1. The thickness d of the beam multiplication film 120 a, the inclinedangle θ of the optical axis A of the beam multiplication film 120 arelative to a transmission direction TD of the light beam L and thelateral displacement D between the ordinary beam L1 and theextraordinary beam L2 satisfy the expressions: D=d×tan α, and

${{\cot( {\alpha + {45{^\circ}}} )} = {\frac{n_{e}^{2}}{n_{o}^{2}}\cot\theta}},$

wherein α is the angle between the ordinary beam L1 and theextraordinary beam L inside the beam multiplication film 120 a, whilen_(e) and n_(o) are the ordinary refractive index and the extraordinaryrefractive index of the beam multiplication film 120 a, respectively.

By setting the optical axis A of the beam multiplication film 120 a tobe inclined relative to the transmission direction TD of the light beamL, one light beam L can be split into two beams. Therefore, one lightbeam L may be split into multiple beams through the design of multiplefilms. In addition, each of the light intensities of the ordinary beamL1 and the extraordinary beam L2 is approximately 50 percent of theintensity of the original light beam L. Hence, the structured lightprojector of the embodiment of the invention is capable of producingstructured light made up of multiple beams with similar intensity.

In the present embodiment, the light source 110 can be, for example, anedge emitting laser or a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL),but is not limited thereto. If the light source 110 is an edge emittinglaser, the edge emitting laser and the beam multiplication film 120 canbe used to simulate a VCSEL. If the light source 110 is a VCSEL, theVCSEL and the beam multiplication film 120 can be used to simulate asmaller pitch VCSEL for realizing higher density of illumination pointswithout the problem of heat dissipation caused by small pitch betweenthe illumination points, which helps the reliability and the resolutionof the VCSEL.

Referring to FIG. 2 again, the structured light projector 100 furtherincludes a diffractive optical element 130 and a wave plate 140. Thediffractive optical element 130 is configured to perform at least one ofbeam shaping and beam multiplication, and the beam multiplication film120 is disposed between the light source 110 and the diffractive opticalelement 130. The wave plate 140 is disposed between the beammultiplication film 120 and the diffractive optical element 130. In theembodiment, the wave plate 140 is, for example, a quarter wave plate.Specially, the polarization state of the light beam L is changed tolinear polarization after passing through the beam multiplication film120, while some diffractive optical elements may be sensitive to thepolarization of the light beam L. When the polarized light beam L passesthrough the wave plate 140, the polarization state of the polarizedlight beam L can be changed from linear polarization to circularpolarization or elliptical polarization. Therefore, the configuration ofthe wave plate 140 can prevent the diffractive optical element 150 frombeing affected by the polarization of the light beam L. However, if thediffractive optical element 130 is not sensitive to the polarization ofthe light beam L, the structured light projector 100 may not include thewave plate 140.

In addition, the fabrication tolerance of the diffractive opticalelement 130 can be increased by using the beam multiplication film 120.To be specific, since a plurality of separated light beams are producedin advance after the light beam L from the light source 110 passesthrough the beam multiplication film 120, the demand for beammultiplication capability of the diffractive optical element 130 can bereduced. For example, if twenty thousand light beams are needed to beproduced by the structured light projector 100, and the light beam Lfrom the light source 110 (for example, an edge emitting laser) is splitinto, for example, sixteen light beams after passing through the beammultiplication film 120. Instead of one light beam, sixteen light beamsare split into twenty thousand light beams after passing through thediffractive optical element 150. (That is, one light beam is needed tobe split into merely 1250 light beams after passing through thediffractive optical element 130.)

In the embodiment, the structured light projector 100 can furtherinclude a lens module 150 disposed on the transmission path of the lightbeam L, and the lens module 150 is configured to perform at least one ofbeam shaping and beam collimation. In the present embodiment, the lensmodule 150 is disposed between the light source 110 and the beammultiplication film 120. In other embodiments, the lens module 150 canbe disposed between the beam multiplication film 120 and the wave plate140, or can be disposed between the wave plate 140 and the diffractiveoptical element 130, but is not limited thereto.

FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B are schematic views of light patterns generated bystructured light projectors according to some embodiments of theinvention. Referring to FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B, FIG. 4A illustrates aregular light pattern P1, and FIG. 4B illustrates a quasi-random lightpattern P2. The regular light pattern P1 and the quasi-random lightpattern P2 are, for example, light patterns which are generated when thestructure light illuminates a plane perpendicular to an optical axis ofa structure light projector. As mentioned above, the lateraldisplacement D between the ordinary beam L1 and the extraordinary beamL2 is in relation to the thickness d of the beam multiplication film 120a and the inclined angle θ of the optical axis A. Therefore, byappropriate design of thickness and alignment direction of the beammultiplication film 120, the regular light pattern P1 as shown in FIG.4A or the quasi-random light pattern P2 as shown in FIG. 4B can begenerated. Specially, if the light source 110 is a VCSEL, by using thebeam multiplication film 120 with different thickness or alignmentdirection, another photo mask is not needed to fabricate another patternof illumination points of the VCSEL, which helps reduce the cost.

FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B are schematic cross-sectional views of a structuredlight projector in different viewpoints according to an embodiment ofthe invention. The structured light projector illustrated in FIG. 5B iscounterclockwise rotated around the Z axis of the structured lightprojector illustrated in FIG. 5A by 45 degrees, for example. Referringto FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B, a structured light projector 200 of theembodiment is substantially similar to the structured light projector100, and the differences there between are as follows. The number of thebeam multiplication films is two, and optical axes of the two beammultiplication films are inclined relative to a transmission directionTD of the light beam L emitted from the light source 110 by anglesrespectively existing in different reference planes which are notparallel or perpendicular to each other.

To be specific, the structured light projector 200 has another beammultiplication film 220 disposed between the beam multiplication film120 and the wave plate 140. An optical axis A2 of the beammultiplication film 220 is inclined relative to a transmission directionTD of the light beam L emitted from the light source 110 by an angle θ2which is different from angle θ1. In the present embodiment, the angleθ1 exists in a reference plane, e.g. YZ plane, and the angle θ2 existsin another reference plane, e.g. in which X+Y axis and Z axis exist. Inother embodiments, the reference planes in which the angle θ1 and theangle θ2 exist can be other planes which are not parallel orperpendicular to each other, and the invention is not limited thereto.In other words, the included angle between the reference planes in whichthe angle θ1 and the angle θ2 exist may be greater than 0 degree andless than 90 degrees but not equal to 45 degrees. Moreover, in otherembodiments, the value of the angle θ1 may be the same as the value ofthe angle θ2.

Since the polarization state of the light beam L is changed to linearpolarization after passing through the beam multiplication film 120, theinclined angle θ2 of the optical axis A2 of the beam multiplication film220 may exist in another reference plane different from the referenceplane in which the inclined angle θ1 of the optical axis A1 of the beammultiplication film 120 exists, such that the light beams passingthrough the beam multiplication film 120 can be further split intomultiple light beams after passing through the beam multiplication film220.

In the embodiment, the thickness d1 of the beam multiplication film 120may be the same as the thickness d2 of the beam multiplication film 220,or the thickness d1 of the beam multiplication film 120 may be differentfrom the thickness d2 of the beam multiplication film 220, and theinvention is not limited thereto. Besides, in other embodiments, thenumber of the beam multiplication films can be three or more, andoptical axes of the three or more beam multiplication films are inclinedrelative to a transmission direction of the light beam emitted from thelight source 110 by angles respectively existing in different referenceplanes which are not parallel or perpendicular to each other.

FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a structured lightprojector according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG.6, a structured light projector 300 of the embodiment is substantiallysimilar to the structured light projector 200, and the differencestherebetween are as follows. The structured light projector 300 furtherincludes a wave plate 340 disposed between adjacent beam multiplicationfilm 120 and beam multiplication film 220. Since the polarization stateof the light beam L is changed from linear polarization to circularpolarization or elliptical polarization after passing through the waveplate 340, the inclined angle θ2 of the optical axis A2 of the beammultiplication film 220 can exist in the same reference plane where theinclined angle θ1 of the optical axis A1 of the beam multiplication film120 exists. Of course, the inclined angle θ2 of the optical axis A2 ofthe beam multiplication film 220 can exist in another reference planedifferent from the reference plane where the inclined angle θ1 of theoptical axis A1 of the beam multiplication film 120 exists, and theinvention is not limited thereto.

In other embodiments, the number of the beam multiplication films can bethree or more, and the structured light projector 300 further includetwo or more wave plates 340. Each one of the wave plates 340 is disposedbetween the adjacent two of the three or more beam multiplication films.

In view of the foregoing, the structured light projector provided by oneof the embodiments of the invention includes at least one beammultiplication film made of anisotropic refractive index material. Sincethe light beam from the light source is split by the at least one beammultiplication film into multiple light beams corresponding to aplurality of polarization directions, so that the structured lightprojector of the embodiment of the invention is capable of effectivelyproducing structured light by using a simple structure. Besides, thestructured light projector provided by one of the embodiments of theinvention uses the aforementioned structured light projector, andtherefore is capable of producing structured light by using a simple andeffective way.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made to the disclosed embodimentswithout departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. In view ofthe foregoing, it is intended that the disclosure covers modificationsand variations provided that they fall within the scope of the followingclaims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A structured light projector, comprising: a lightsource, configured to emit a light beam; and at least two beammultiplication films, disposed on a transmission path of the light beam,wherein a plurality of separated light beams are produced after thelight beam from the light source passes through any one of the at leasttwo beam multiplication films, so as to form structured light, andoptical axes of the at least two beam multiplication films are inclinedrelative to a transmission direction of the light beam emitted from thelight source; and a diffractive optical element, configured to performat least one of beam shaping and beam multiplication, wherein the atleast two beam multiplication films are disposed between the lightsource and the diffractive optical element.
 2. The structured lightprojector according to claim 1, further comprising a wave plate disposedbetween adjacent two of the at least two beam multiplication films andthe diffractive optical element, wherein a polarization state of thelight beam is changed from linear polarization to circular polarizationor elliptical polarization after the light beam passes through the waveplate.
 3. The structured light projector according to claim 1, whereinthe optical axes of the at least two beam multiplication films areinclined relative to the transmission direction of the light beamemitted from the light source by angles respectively existing indifferent reference planes which are not parallel or perpendicular toeach other.
 4. The structured light projector according to claim 1,wherein the structured light projector further comprises a lens moduledisposed on the transmission path of the light beam, and the lens moduleis configured to perform at least one of beam shaping and beamcollimation.
 5. The structured light projector according to claim 1,wherein the at least two beam multiplication films comprise uniaxialretardation films, biaxial retardation films, or oblique axialretardation films.
 6. The structured light projector according to claim1, wherein the at least two beam multiplication films comprise flexiblefilms.
 7. The structured light projector according to claim 1, whereinoptical axes of the at least two beam multiplication films are inclinedrelative to a transmission direction of the light beam emitted from thelight source by different angles.
 8. The structured light projectoraccording to claim 1, wherein the light source comprises an edgeemitting laser or a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser.